But in spite of the controversy, there’s a heightened
need to address the relationship between guns and
our faith.

Back when the availability of guns translated into a hunting
rifle on the gun rack or a BB gun in the closet, things
were tame and controllable. But now a whole arsenal is at
our disposal—legally.

The recent carnage in Las Vegas
has made the arsenal horribly vivid. But many of us Americans are
accessing that weaponry in a kneejerk
reaction to a perceived rise in
violent crime.

It’s ironic, though. Violent crime
overall is in decline, in spite of a
recent uptick of violence in US cities
in 2017. Gun acquisition has
increased, as more Americans acquire weapons for self-protection,
not merely for recreational use.

This translates into a climate of fear, resulting in the rise
of violence, including gun violence, as people increasingly
utilize armed force in an attempt to protect themselves.

But God wants us to protect ourselves more creatively.
Violence doesn’t work. As Martin Luther King Jr. clarifies:
Violence is "a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it
seeks to destroy. . . . Returning violence for violence multiplies
violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already
devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only
light can do that."

For some, this sounds naïve. But a turn from violence is
not equal to being a doormat. Rather, it’s a doorway to a
more savvy way of stopping evil.

Fifty-five years ago, America was entangled in the Cuban
missile crisis. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for a fullscale
attack. But cooler heads prevailed, and a better weapon
was found: a naval “quarantine” of Cuba. The US surrounded
Cuba with ships, preventing more weapons from
entering from the Soviet Union and forcing Cuba to remove
or destroy the missiles already in place.

Nonviolent solutions would be more evident if we applied
the same research and development prowess to the creation
of nonviolent weaponry as we do to conventional weaponry.
Christ-followers are to slow the cycle of violence—
advancing creative weapons, nonviolent weapons, God’s
weapons. Thus, we advocate for the lessening of guns, to
lessen the temptation to protect ourselves violently.

In 1995, Mennonite artist Esther Augsburger and her son
Michael created a 16-by-19-foot sculpture entitled "Guns
into Plowshares." It was created out of 3,000 actual guns,
melted down after being collected by the Washington, DC,
police, as part of a buy-back program.

For years "Guns into Plowshares" stood prophetically in
Judiciary Square, in the heart of Washington. But in 2008,
Judiciary Square was remodeled and the sculpture was
replaced by a fountain. "Guns into Plowshares" was relocated
behind a fence, in a maintenance yard near a sewage
treatment plant. Later it sat next to a remote police evidence
control facility. How easily the cause of nonviolence
can ebb away.

But the Augburgers did not give up. This fall, "Guns into
Plowshares" was relocated temporarily to the edge of the
Eastern Mennonite University's campus to be refurbished.

The move was a herculean effort, since the sculpture
weighs four tons. But the Augsburgers were determined
that the sculpture not be sidelined—but renewed, so that
eventually it can be returned to Washington for a continued
witness for peace.

We are called to renew and continue our witness for
peace. It’s a herculean effort. But Jesus and his message will
not be sidelined.

Jesus requires that his message be proclaimed in the
public square, openly, prophetically, vividly, until the dream
comes true: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks. . . . they shall all sit
under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no
one shall make them afraid" (Micah 4:3-4).

Paul Mundey is an ordained Church of the Brethren minister. He is engaged in
a ministry of writing and consulting, along with being a post-graduate student in
family systems theory, at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University.